GCN Circular 21638
Subject
LIGO/Virgo G298048: Gemini-South Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
Event
Date
2017-08-22T05:20:11Z (9 years ago)
From
Ryan Chornock at Ohio U <chornock@ohio.edu>
R. Chornock (Ohio University) and E. Berger (Harvard) report on behalf of a
larger collaboration:
We have been obtaining a sequence of near-infrared spectroscopy (range 1-1.8
microns) of the optical counterpart (SSS17a: Coulter et al., GCN 21529; Allam et
al., GCN 21530) of LIGO/Virgo G298048 (GCNs 21509, 21513) using FLAMINGOS2 on
Gemini-South (PI: Chornock).
Our initial spectra, taken on 20170819 at 00:45 UT (~1.5 days after the
LIGO/Virgo event) have a smooth blue continuum. Data taken the following night
show a few broad, low-amplitude features starting to develop. An initial
reduction of data taken on 20170821 at 23:40 UT (~4.5 days after the LIGO/Virgo
event) shows that these features (including a possible spectral peak near 1.05
microns) have strengthened. Analysis is ongoing and further observations are
planned to constrain the potential presence of lanthanide opacities in the
near-infrared.
We thank the Gemini staff, particularly Hwihyun Kim, Gonzalo Diaz, Pablo Candia,
and Laura Ferrarese for their support of these operations.